Free Soufflés at Sunrise by M.J. O'Shea and Anna Martin Page B

little bad discussing those who weren’t there, but he supposed it was part of being in a competition. “He doesn’t seem to have a focus.”
    “Yeah, but he pulled out a great pie last week. He wasn’t in the bottom three,” Jenna reminded them.
    “You’re right. I guess it’s really hard to say. Hell, I won last week, but there’s no immunity ever. I could go home on Friday,” Breon said.
    Polly snorted. “Don’t you wish there was? Then it would be a lot easier.”
    “We don’t need immunity,” Al said. He puffed his chest out and tried to look tough and not like a huge teddy bear. Everyone grinned and chuckled at him.
    “Maybe you don’t, but I’d sure appreciate it,” Polly said. “The judges barely knew I existed last week.”
    “There are still lots of us. It’ll happen eventually,” Chase said. Polly was a good chef. Maybe a little easy to miss in the shuffle of huge personalities, but good.
    “Hopefully not at the bottom, though,” she muttered. Nobody wanted to get feedback on their work if it meant standing up there, wondering if they were the one to get the axe.
    “Maybe you’ll win this week. Maybe I will.” Chase smiled reassuringly. “Anyway, it’s getting late. I think I’m going to head back down so I won’t be a zombie when it’s time to get up in the morning. Challenge days are always such a pain in the ass to wake up for.”
    “This is only our second main challenge day,” Kai teased him.
    “I know. I’m just not looking forward to it. You coming down?” he asked.
    Everyone else started giggling. “Ooooh,” Jenna teased. She zipped up her fleece vest.
    “Please. We’re not going to do that here. Besides. Aaron is in there. Snoring.” There were more giggles.
    “Good luck with that,” Breon muttered. “Actually, good luck to him. He’s probably not going to make his whole time here without seeing more of you two than he’d planned.”
    Chase felt heat rise to his cheeks. “Night, guys” was all he could manage. He wasn’t used to blatant teasing from almost-strangers.
    A chorus of “night, Chase” and “night, Kai” came from the group when Kai rose too and followed him to the door that led downstairs to their suite.
    “You okay about tomorrow?” Kai asked when they were inside and on the stairs back down to the penthouse level. He reached up and scratched at Chase’s hair.
    “Not really. But I’ll be fine. I’m not going home,” he said. “I can’t yet.” He didn’t want to disappoint his family or his town. He knew they’d all be watching when the show aired, cheering him on, hoping he’d make the final three.
    “Who do you really think is going to go out tomorrow?”
    “Who knows?” Chase said. “It could be anybody. I don’t think the judges are too happy with some of the weirder stuff, but they don’t like boring either. I think I’m boring.”
    “Cheese ice cream with beer-flavored caramel and pretzels isn’t boring. You aren’t boring.” Kai pulled him against the wall of the stairwell and dropped a gentle kiss on his lips. “You’ll be fine. You just have to remember to snap at me a few times.”
    Chase rolled his eyes. “That’s so dumb.”
    “Just think of it this way. I don’t know how rigged these things are, but they wouldn’t have given us roles to play if they didn’t think we were going to stick around for a while.”
    “True.” He hoped Kai was right.
     
     
    C HEESECAKE . “W HY ’ D it have to be cheesecake? I hate cheesecake,” Kai muttered to Chase as they walked to their kitchen stations the next morning.
    “Shhh, pipe down, Indy. You’re not supposed to be talking to me.” Chase nudged him on the side, though, more of a touch than a nudge. Kai remembered the night before. How good it had felt to casually touch Chase in front of the rest of the cast, like it was no big deal. Hell, to most of them, it probably wasn’t.
    Kai hadn’t ever been very physical with the guys he’d dated before.